


Begin

by rudbeckia



Series: Random Worlds [32]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Emperor Hux, Huxloween, Kylux - Freeform, Possession, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-24
Updated: 2017-10-24
Packaged: 2019-01-22 09:24:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12478404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rudbeckia/pseuds/rudbeckia
Summary: Hux accompanies Ren on a rescue/salvage operation to a First Order ship floating in space without power or life support. While trying to get the ship’s systems operational, Hux hears Ren in distress and (eventually) goes to rescue him.Perhaps the abandoned ship is not as empty as he first thought.Huxloween day 24: Abandoned PlacesRandom Worlds Random Word: Begin





	Begin

The ship was abandoned, Hux was sure of that from the damaged life support. If not abandoned, he reasoned, there were certainly no oxygen-dependent living creatures aboard. There was no atmosphere and the gravity generator was off line. Hux propelled himself across the bridge to the main console, attracted by a flicker of light from its dark surface. 

“Approaching main controls now, Ren. I suggest you hold on to something while I activate the grav generator.”  
Ren muttered a crackly acknowledgment in Hux’s earpiece. Hux powered up the console and found the familiar command menu.  
“Beginning systems check.”  
“No need.” Ren’s voice again. Hux gritted his teeth and scowled at the readouts before him.  
“Since you insisted I accompany you on this mission, you will accept correct protocol in salvaging this ship before the rebels or pirates find her and claim our technology. Find something to hold on to.”  
Half a second after his warning, Hux activated the ship’s grav generators and he sank gently to the floor, landing on his feet. In his earpiece, Ren cursed. Hux gave a satisfied smirk.

Ren appeared in the entrance, black-clad and helmeted although, like Hux, in a tight-fitting smartfabric spacesuit rather than his usual bulky robes. Hux smirked, glad of his uniform coverall that added extra insulation against the space-cold of the dead ship as well as concealing the lack of meat on his spare frame. He allowed his eyes to linger on Ren’s broad torso for a few seconds: covert surveillance from behind his tinted faceplate.  
“He was here. I can feel it. The force—”  
“Oh forget the kriffing force, Ren!” Hux thumped a panel in front of him and somewhere deep in the ship a regular _thrumthrumthrum_ vibrated the whole structure. The sound seemed to seep through his bones and up into his ears. Hux pointed at Ren. “Do you mean you dragged me across here for a rescue mission and he’s not even here?”  
Ren did not reply. He stepped backwards through the doorway and vanished into the ship. Hux hit the panel again and the deep rumble stopped. He sighed and spoke mostly to himself, “Need to stabilise the main structure with force fields before I try the engines again. Let me see... there. That should do it.”

A shadow looming through the doorway distracted Hux’s thoughts. “Ren, what is it now? I’m busy.” Hux looked up but Ren was not there. The black rectangle of the doorway was just that and no more, a void surrounded by the pale emergency lighting Hux had set up himself.  
“I found his lair. It’s empty. Oh!” Ren’s voice sounded sharp and Hux thought he could hear the faint buzz and unstable crackle of his lightsaber. Hux took a step towards the door but stopped himself and returned his attention to his agreed part in this salvage operation. With a few more commands, talking softly through what he was doing, mostly to relieve the oppressive silence, he rerouted emergency power reserves and the ship’s own emergency lights came on, shifting the shadows and making his spine chill. Hux laughed at himself. Silly. Jumping at empty spaces.

“Ren.” Hux waited but there was no response. “Ren?”  
When Ren did not reply the second time, Hux tutted and shook his head. He had restored emergency power, raised force fields around the worst of the damage to the ship’s scarred hull, and uploaded the ship’s primary log to a datachip. Life support defied him, though, and he had yet to try the engines again.  
“Ren!”  
No reply. Hux sighed.  
“Fine. I’m coming to find you. This really is very childish, you know. I want to test the life support section by section and I need to know where you are in case—“  
“Here!” Ren’s voice was faint in Hux’s earpiece. “I’m here.”  
“Kriff, Ren! need to know where _here_ is if I am to avoid cutting you off accidentally with an unfortunately placed blast door. Where are you?”  
“Here. I’m here.”  
Ren sounded weak. Hux cursed and activated the head-up display inside his faceplate, locating the blip that represented Ren’s tracker and superimposing it on a schematic of the ship. “I’m coming to get you. You had better have a real injury and not just some flesh wound like you had on Starkiller.”

Hux walked cautiously. The emergency lighting was barely adequate and he considered that it was likely Ren had simply tripped over a chunk of impact debris or ripped his smartfibre suit by catching it carelessly on an exposed piece of torn alloy. Perhaps, mused Hux, he’d been hit on the head by falling transparisteel from the shattered viewports and sustained a crack to his helmet that was leaking atmosphere, slowly suffocating him. That thought made Hux double check the fastest route back to the hangar where they’d moored the shuttle and speed up as much as he dared. The ship had suffered considerable damage and Hux had to pick his way across collapsed and warped passageways, several times with a view of the velvet blackness of empty space where the ship seemed to have been peeled open. 

“Hux! Hu... h...”  
He hurried. Ren was getting fainter. He was close: Ren’s tracker signal came from a suite near the engineering section and Hux offered a silent thank-you to the blank void of space to his right that he had not chosen to re-start the engines and possibly bathe the entire deck with radiation that would have seared Ren’s spacesuit to his skin and melted his faceplate. The last bulkhead between them was torn and twisted, and Hux clambered through, slow and careful not to meet the same fate as Ren. 

His eyes adjusted as his helmet light dimmed automatically. Hux crouched and looked around. Ren was there - slumped against the wall, his lightsaber a few inches from his hand as if he had fallen and it had tumbled out and rolled away. On the other side of the room, a shadow moved against the wall where no shadow ought to be, and Hux froze. The shadow seemed to gather itself together, swirling, coalescing into something more solid. From it, a blackened, gnarled hand reached out towards Ren, and Ren moaned, slipping further down the wall.

Hux pulled his blaster and fired red plasma into the shadow, bolt after bolt until his power cell was empty, then with trained fingers he slotted a new power cell into place. Under cover of his own renewed fire, he ran to Ren and grabbed his wrist. The shadow scattered further with each blast and dissipated around the room. Ren groaned and groped for his lightsaber. Hux guided Ren to it.  
“WHAT THE KRIFF IS THAT THING!” Hux yelled. Ren pushed himself up and staggered as shadows swirled around him.  
“HUX! RUN!”  
Hux shot at the shadows again, now defined sharply against the wall, and Ren ignited his lightsaber. They ran.

 

From the shuttle, Hux gave the command Ren had demanded as soon as they cleared the hangar.  
_Target all weapons. Fire when ready._  
_...Yes, sir. Ventral cannon hot, dorsal plasma blasters coming online in four... three..._  
They watched as the ship exploded and its component parts vaporised, atoms scattered into space. Hux shuddered as a blast wave swept past and rocked the shuttle, particles of the destroyed ship sparking against their shields.  
“Waste of resources. We should have towed it back to the shipyards and recycled the materials. Some of those alloys are expensive.”  
Ren sighed. “Thank you.”  
“What?”  
“I said thank you,” repeated Ren, quietly.  
“I know,” replied Hux. “I wanted to hear your gratitude again. Ren, what was that thing?”  
“It was dark force, manifest. It wanted me, it wanted to feed on my powers and take... Hux, if you hadn’t come—“  
“I nearly didn’t so shut up. Did you find Snoke’s remains?”  
Ren stared at Hux, eyebrows up and lips parted. “You... You are far more ignorant than I ever thought, general.”  
Hux put the shuttle on autopilot so that the Finalizer could tractor them in. He turned to face Ren.  
“Are you implying that... that _thing_ was Snoke?” Ren pursed his lips and waited. “So...” Hux turned off the shuttle’s internal recorder. “Do you mean that Supreme Leader Snoke was... what? A dark force monster whose ship was destroyed by... by... an asteroid impact? A rogue comet? Forces as yet undetermined? And we just erased all evidence? Shit, Ren! Snoke’s absence is going to be seen as an assassination and will leave a power vacuum in the First Order. How many of his lackeys are going to turn on one another before the last one left alive rises to the top? We needed him! His rule! To stop us from pulling the Order into chaos! How are we going to cover up this kriffing mess before the First Order fragments into useless pieces?” 

Ren leaned forward and stared into Hux’s eyes. “General, this is an opportunity. Take your fear and use it to gain strength. Let us take credit for Snoke’s demise! We can work out a story of your bravery and passion, and my skill at manipulating the force. Take control of the First Order! The other generals and admirals will follow you once you show them your conviction through firepower, and mine through the force. With Phasma leading the stormtroopers under your direction, none will defy you. This is where my final training has led: I am destined to take Snoke’s place in the force, but it is you who will lead the military campaigns that will subdue the rebels and destroy the republic. All systems will bow to you, and through you to me. Can’t you feel that it is time for a new beginning?”

Hux could not look away. He felt excitement build as Ren spoke but he swallowed it down, calming his nerves with a deep breath and clenched fists.  
“A new empire. Yes. But not corrupt like the old empire. A new empire built on order.“  
Hux stopped, closed his eyes and bit his knuckle but a giggle surfaced nonetheless. “Ren, we must show a united front on this matter. How do you propose we reconcile our personal differences before we make an announcement?”  
Ren smirked and leaned close to Hux’s ear. He spoke quietly in a voice that made Hux shiver, “I think I can find a way.”

With that, Ren kissed Hux and sat back while the docking tractors pulled the shuttle into the hangar. Hux looked out through the front viewport at the efficient working of his crew and smiled. Behind him, a dark presence as yet undetected looked out through Ren’s eyes and wondered how long it would be before Hux grew suspicious and had to be replaced.


End file.
